It may sound like basic common sense to say this, but one of the ways to help businesses that are founded by underrepresented communities succeed is to invest in them.

But access to money is hard to come by if business owners lack networks to connect them with investors. A 2020 report by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission notes that Black-owned businesses start with three times less capital than white-owned businesses. Women-owned businesses on average can access $54,400 in capital investments vs. $80,200 for male-owned new businesses. (Although the SEC report also points to a 2018 study that every dollar invested in a woman-owned business generated 78 cents in revenue compared with 31 cents of revenue for male-owned business investments.)

So with that in mind, Circulate Capital says it has qualified for the 2X challenge, created to boost investments in women's economic empowerment by deploying $15 billion. The program previously topped its initial goal of $3 billion.

Circulate — created in collaboration with Ocean Conservancy with founding investments coming from companies such as PepsiCo Inc., Procter & Gamble, Dow and Unilever — has already invested in Tridi Oasis, a PET recycler in Jakarta, Indonesia, founded by CEO Dian Kurniawati, and Recykal, a recycler of electronic waste in Hyderabad, India, co-founded by a woman.

More than 100 executives from materials suppliers, bag makers, building products suppliers, medical, automotive and a range of other companies are being honored by the Manufacturing Institute's STEP Ahead Awards.

The awards, now in its 10th year, mark women who have "made tremendous contributions and impact within the manufacturing industry and their communities."

Among the 130 honorees are: Adrianne Tipton, chief technology officer for bag maker Novolex; Madeleine Titus, lean engineer for luxury vinyl tile maker Armstrong Flooring Inc.; Mariah Arevalo, hardware discipline engineer manager for Dow Inc.'s Freeport, Texas, facility; Mahue Sánchez García, senior manager, operations and logistics, for Sabic Innovative Plastics' polycarbonate site in Cartagena, Spain; and Natalie McMillan, Butvar area manager for Eastman Chemical Co., who leads a technical and operations staff of more than 50 people working in interlayers resin production.

And those women are just a small number of the people with plastics connections being honored by the institue. Click through here to find out more about all of the honorees.

Annina Donaldson and Tammy Straw are making history as the first female duo to lead any NPE committee in the trade show's 75-year history.

Donaldson, vice president of Florida operations for deflashing supplier Maxi-Blast Inc., is chair of the NPE2024 Sales & Marketing Committee, while Straw, marketing and business development manager for extruder maker Entek Manufacturing of Lebanon, Ore., is vice chair.

As leaders of the committee, Donaldson and Straw oversee efforts to generate excitement and, ultimately, attendance for the event. The committee has a total of 13 members from a variety of large and small companies representing processors, equipment manufacturers and materials suppliers. They also take on the task after COVID-19 forced the cancellation of NPE2021.

NPE2024 is set for May 6-10, 2024, in Orlando, Fla.

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